ISTANBUL – Hürriyet Daily News
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. AP photo
Israeli participants in an October 2009 meeting claimed Turks had allowed weapons-related material for Iran’s nuclear program to transit Turkey, according to one of the diplomatic documents released by WikiLeaks.
The materials were allowed through Turkey “with Prime Minister [Recep Tayyip] Erdoğan’s full knowledge,” wrote Frederic Bereyziat, a senior French Foreign Ministry official for Israel and the peace process, who took notes on the second annual Franco-Israeli Strategic Dialogue in October 2009.
According to the leaked cable, the French replied that Israel would need to have clear and concrete proof of such activity before leveling accusations against Turkey. The Israelis replied that they were collecting evidence that they would eventually publicize.
The “five to six hours” of talks between delegations led by Pierre Sellal, director-general of the French Foreign Ministry, and Yossi Gal, director-general of the Israeli Foreign Ministry, covered a wide range of issues, including the Middle East peace process, Turkey, Syria and Iran, according to Bereyziat.
The French official said the Israelis explained that they would not take strong public positions condemning what they perceived as Turkey’s recent “strategic shift away from Western positions on the peace process, Iran and Israel’s nuclear program.”
Erdoğan’s public comments about Israel’s nuclear weapons had particularly irked the Israelis, Bereyziat said, describing the prime minister’s remarks as unprecedented by a Turkish leader.
The Israelis moreover blamed the Europeans, and especially France, for the shift in Turkey’s policy, saying that if Europe had more warmly embraced Turkey, the Turks would not be taking steps to earn approval in the Arab and Muslim world at the expense of Israel.
Responding to this accusation, the French, “begged to differ,” Bereyziat noted as a follow up.